6 questions Chris Denton Director of Marketing, Communications and Digital Strategy – Southbank Centre

11. Be honest, do you tell, sell or engage at the moment?

The last 40 years! with thanks to Morris Hargreaves McIntyre www.lateralthinkers.com

Then… Organisation Customer TELL AND SELL Take it or leave it!

What is a ‘cultural experience’? The opportunity: We can create and deliver an expanded and enriched cultural experience to an international audience using advances in digital technology.

COMMUNICATION CONVERSATION COMMUNITY AUDIENCES Now… Arts organisation

2. What are you asking people to buy into?

Build your brand MISSION – Who you are, what you do VISION – What you want to become VALUES – What you believe, what defines you

Elevator moment

The importance of brand AFFORDABILITY Wherever possible we need to encourage people to make value judgments about us based on ‘hearts’ and not ‘heads’.

The importance of brand TRUST We need to build trust with audiences and not sabotage it. Deliver on our promises

The importance of brand PASSION Loyalty Belief in the importance of what we do Prioritise us Champion us to others

3. How will you make it more than a one night stand?

What is audience development? ACQUISITION RETENTION FREQUENCY CROSS-OVER TRUST ENGAGEMENT LOYALTY LOVE WHO is responsible? EVERYONE in the organisation NOT JUST ABOUT BUMS ON SEATS

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Marketing Education WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? Digital Sponsors Learning and Participation Press and External Affairs Membership and Friends schemes ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Front of House service/Shops/Bars/Cafes Education MARKETING OR ENGAGEMENT? Box Office Board Development Team Marketing Digital

Some of you may have heard me speak before about CRM – or Customer Relationship Management. This too is a vital concept to grasp and adopt. CRM is all about being CUSTOMER CENTRIC – putting customers at the very heart of what you do. By thinking of customers – ALWAYS – you have a better chance of developing your offer in a way which is engaging and relevant to them. By being relevant and engaging, you have a better chance of making them decide that you are an essential part of their choices at the moment. In other words, you are helping yourselves pass the AFFORDABILITY test in the minds of your customers. Brand and CRM are – to me – the twin pillars which undermine any successful marketing strategy. You need to be clear about what you offer – brand – and develop the right tools and methods of telling people about it – CRM

Who comes already? What do you know about your audience? Are they loyal? Can they come more often? Do you look after them? Aim: Long term, loyal, profitable

DATA Understand and target your audiences better Increase income via dynamic pricing, & yield management Who are our customers? What do we really know about them? Are we communicating with them in the right ways and at the right time? What are we actually saying about our brand when we do talk to them? Are they loyal to us? If they are loyal, are we treating them with respect?

BEHAVIOUR Booking patterns: Recency Frequency Value Arts interests: Art form Genres Multiple interests Location: Distance Loyalty: Subscriber Friend Patron Major donor

Good at winning new customers Year 1 2 3 4 5

Bad at keeping them Year 1 2 3 4 5

New audience plan

28% increase in those coming more than once 31% increase in revenue from returning customers (extra £1.2m) 14% of new audiences still attending after 5 years. Up from 5% 16% of people receiving welcome pack came back within one month of first visit 26% increase in bookings in the first two years of programme 40% more revenue from higher frequency visitors within 3 years

All customers are equal Know which customers to focus most attention on

4. Who are you going to reach out to and how?

PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION The Four P’s… PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION

Audience development matrix Existing programme to existing audiences Existing programme to new audiences New programme to existing audiences New programme to new audiences

Audience development matrix Existing programme to existing audiences Existing programme to new audiences New programme to existing audiences New programme to new audiences

Audience development matrix Existing programme to existing audiences Existing programme to new audiences New programme to existing audiences New programme to new audiences

Research Work together with others Agree benchmarking priorities Set audience development targets Test and learn Identify the potential What do you really do? Who comes, why and how do they know? What new things do you want to do? Is there demand? Research? How good is your current marketing? Are there people doing similar things? Who is your competition? Are you meeting financial targets? Will the new idea help? How many are you selling and to who? What are your prices? Have they changed over the last few years? Do you have a marketing or audience development budget? Is it adequate? What additional money will you need to put your new ideas into place? Where will the money come from? What influences might affect your project, such as social or economic issues nationally or locally?

5. Think like the people who aren’t coming

ATTITUDE Psychographic segments Values Attitudes Beliefs Motivations Expectations Life experiences

Tips Don’t think about ‘difficult’ programmes Imagery, tone of voice – be appropriate Remove basic barriers (dress code etc) Pricing – don’t undervalue what you do Make a night of it (packages) Test, test and test again But don’t forget…

6. Are you following them or are they following you?

Existing programme to existing audiences Existing programme to new audiences New programme to existing audiences New programme to new audiences

Who leads, who follows? The art or the audience?

FESTIVAL STRATEGY

Audience development aims Create a destination – something for everyone Target least engaged audiences Deepen engagement Be entrepreneurial to attract new audiences Make best use of the site and venues Cultural activism We use the festivals as a route to draw people into material that would otherwise be difficult or challenging – whether topics such as death with our festival of Death or repertoire such as 20th century classical music as part of the award winning The Rest is Noise. We work with commercial partners of all kinds that attract new audiences to Southbank Centre, where they will ‘bump’ into aspects of our cultural programme, such as the external installations as part of our festivals or the free events and performances and discover more about what we do. Examples include the weekly markets, or pop up restaurants such as Dishoom (Asian communities including families) and Wahaca (young adults), and the summer comedy, circus and cabaret festival with Udderbelly (audiences new to Southbank Centre).

PIC SHOWING VIBRANT SITE HOLDING IMAGE

FESTIVAL STRATEGY - TRANSFORMING THE BUSINESS MODEL

Transforming the Business Model Festival Strategy has: Driven foot fall and visits Created a vibrant destination Increased attractiveness to commercial partners Attracted new sources of sponsorship

Grant v Self Generated Income

Southbank Centre is UK’s 3rd most visited visitor destination 6.2m tickets issued 5,000 ticketed events each year 31m people visit the site 50% of events are FREE One of the most diverse audiences in UK arts Bold vision with stunning results